Well it's official there are 25 days left until I head home back to the U.S. and see everyone! I'm getting kind of excited especially since just yesterday (6/29/2011) I am done conducting my surveys. The rest of my time here in Ecuador will be committed to coding everything and starting some preliminary analysis.
6/23/2011
Today Romiro and I went to Tutupali. Romiro is a professor here at UTPL and he doesn't speak very much english so it was an awesome opportunity for both of us to practice. We spent the whole day surveying and chatting in spanish and english correcting each other and expanding our vocabularies. We completed 10 more surveys, the people of Tutupali seem to be getting scarcer. It's most likely due to the fact that they are working in the fields and won't return until after we have left. It was a good day, a couple interesting things to mention we walked by a construction site (a 3 story apartment complex) in this tiny town and there were some construction workers hanging out at one of the guys' house across the "road" and they were all already drunk. One thing I've learned here and have been told many many times never talk to or mess with a drunk local. They get really upset with people interrupting their time off from work and will get agressive! So Romiro and I took a truck back on the sketchy dirt road to the main town of 28 de Mayo and got there at about 7pm and met up with the other social sciences group and Fausto (the other guy professor) had some dinner and walked around the plaza. They were having a special mass so we went to visit the church and afterwards they had empanadas with cheese and sugar (delicious by the way, they're these fried pieces of bread for those that don't know). Then finally at about 10pm Romiro and I began our 4 hour public bus ride back to Loja! I wasn't able to sleep much but did finish my third book of the summer (1st was DaVinci Code and 2nd was Angels and Demons i've been reading these since my Grandma lent me The Lost Symbol and was able to finish it this last school year Thanks Grandma!) Deception Point which is also by Dan Brown. I was a little too worried about having someone run off the bus with my stuff to sleep. Finally we made it back to Loja at about 2am and was able to go to bed!
6/24/2011
Went to the office didn't accomplish a whole lot updated some codes but a few of the surveys in. Went out to dinner with a couple people from the office for their birthdays to this place called Tapas (appetizers). Eric and I split this giant platter that had bacon wrapped fruit, meatballs, papas de espanola (like a piece of potatoe cake it was good), and a shot of this really good wine. I spent friday night at home talking on skype to Jordan and sleeping so I could rest before our big day of a swimming intramural competition for UTPL and horseback riding in Vilcabamba.
6/25/2011
Death has its grips on me....I've been in the bathroom for 2 hours this morning. Tapas has attempted to poison me and at this point it seemed they succeeded. Needless to say I didn't do anything plan and laid in bed all day with the occasional trip to the bathroom. My stomach hurt so badly! Been trying to drink water but can't take more than a couple sips without my stomach hurting.
6/26/2011
Able to drink some more water, I'm pretty dehydrated and trying to kick this sickness. I'm able to get down a couple ritz crackers in the morning and am starting to feel better by the afternoon. Or so it seems. I eat dinner with everyone we have a "family style" dinner. They were so kind as to make ME vegetarian soup, but I think I'm getting my appetite back and order a pizza too. I didn't want to chance the strange vegetables they put into this soup. 9pm rolls around and my stomach is hurting again, I wait in hour watching How I Met Your Mother (TV Series we watch when we're bored) willing my stomach to settle down. Finally I leave and am home at about 10pm and it seems I'm right back where I was at that morning. I keep drinking water in between sessions trying to stay hydrated I have to go to the field tomorrow!
6/27/2011
Wake up and I'm feeling "okay" not the best but I will my self to go to the field because we're taking Veronica's personal car instead of the bus. So we take off for the field with Veronica, Amy, Yesenia, and I in the car ready for 2 days of field work. We get to Tutupali around 3:30 and meet with the president of the parroquail and he says that nobody is in the village San Vicente that we were supposed to visit to get my last surveys. We decide at this point to finish out all the surveys in tutupali for the sake of time and money purposes and Yesenia and I got 15 of 17 surveys done that we needed for my initial plan. The next morning everyones spirits are high and we get the last 2 surveys by 9:30. Amy was also able to get all her work done that we needed too in Tutupali we will not have to return to this place! The road out was a treacherous one and reminds me of the road to the cabin with the exception that there are giant dump trucks going up and down this road tearing it to bits and it had been raining for the past 3 days there. The road was a mess so us in Veronicas dads' Ford Escape attempted to make our way out, we passed through many mud pits in the road tore up by the giant trucks, we passed by many rockfalls thankful that they weren't falling on us, and past a few sketchy parts where the road had partially washed out and probably would in the next couple days if the heavy truck traffic and rain didn't let up. Finally we were safely back in 28 de Mayo and thankful that we were safe. We decided to continue back through La Paz and we would stop so that Yesenia could finish her senior thesis surveys and so that Amy and I could possibly also get some work done. She was able to finish her 4 survey/interviews for her thesis on "Organic Production" that she needed and so we began the final 20 extra surveys that Veronica needed (and I also can use for analysis) it took us but 3 short hours in the town of La Paz and after searching every last corner of the town we found enough people to survey. It has been a successful trip and I feel like I have accomplished a lot thanks to the helpful people of Universidad Tecnica Particular de Loja! I can now begin the final stages of my field research and begin data entry!
6/29/2011
It is a great feeling sitting here in the office with my stack of 90 surveys that I set out to get only 6 weeks ago. In the beginning it started slow with nothing happening the first 2 weeks really and it seemed each week the field time got shorter and shorter with not as much getting done as needed. But here I am triumphant with my stack of papers and we even got 30 extra surveys to bring the total to 120! That will give me great statistics!!!! Now the final data entry begins and will keep you updated on my adventures as I try to relax and enjoy my final 3 weeks here! I will post more pictures on my photobucket also today or tomorrow so make sure to check those out too, and maybe I will even go through and title the ones I haven't yet had time to title!
All is well!
Showing posts with label Survey status. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Survey status. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
10 million fireflies...lit up the skies. lol
6/8/2011
Well we made it safely to Tutupali after passing one of the many bright orange dump trucks that run this road (either for road construction or mining, haven't quite been able to figure it out) and it was in the uhh "ditch." It was quite the sight as we came whipping around one of the corners there's this massive machine sitting just off the road in the jungle. We picked up the passenger in the vehicle who was drunk and I had actually seen earlier when we were waiting in town for our ride driving by drinking a Club Cerveza. So when we picked him up it wasn't surprising he was drunk and very upset. I don't think the driver had been drinking because they have very strict DUI laws here but just not open container laws, or so I am told. It was quite the scene and we continued on our way to Tutupali to conduct our surveys the whole rest of the ride out I was nervous holding onto the truck frame extra tight half expecting to see another orange dump truck come hauling around one of the corners and smashing into us or sending us off the side of the road. But it never came, we made it safely. The drunk man continued on with the driver just up the road to the next little village where I'm assuming his boss was. Anyways we had dinner there of Yuca, Queso, and rice with some strange yellow tea. It was actually pretty okay, afterwards we went out into the plaza and watched the soccer games that had started on the little basketball court. We started approaching people around watching the games who were chatting amongst each other and got 9 surveys tonight! Off to bed at about 2330 (1130) the plaza still had lots of activity but we were tired.
6/9/2011
This morning we woke up at about 8 had breakfast and I packed my backpack to head into a couple of the neighborhoods to conduct surveys. So their definition of a "neighborhood" are like these little villages that are only accessible by walking these rudiculous mountain trails with the exception of a few that are along the road. Our destinations though are an alleged 2 hour hike to the first place another 2 hour hike to the second and an hour hike after that we should be out of the jungle and our ride picking us up. We started hiking at 9:30 and reached the first location at 12:00 where we had lunch and got 15 surveys and man it was gruesome the straight-uped-ness of the trail was amazing. It beat the crap out of us and not to mention it was raining, it was quite invigorating and got to see some Toucans!! We were back on the road by 1400 (2:00pm) walking to the next place. We enjoyed the semi-easy trail we had dropped to this small valley floor crossed a river and hiked up the other mountain side, contouring across going fairly easy. (1500) Then we came across some people on the trail and they told us we needed to drop back down and get to the other side of the valley on the other mountain side and pointed to a faint white square that was the school where we had more people waiting for us to survey them. Well we hiked back down, crossed the river again on another bridge and started back up the other side, man are these mountains steep, the humidity, and the altitude. It was all a lot! After many breaks, running out of clean water, and drinking "pure" spring water we kept hiking to our destinate and made it around 1730(5:30pm)! We were met with open arms and some stern talking-to's. Apparently everyone had been waiting at the school house for us at 1100 that morning ready to feed us lunch and do the surveys, we showed up a few hours late and with hungry stomachs but the food had already been eaten. There weren't many people left many had gone home thinking we weren't coming so we got 8 surveys out of the village and began our voyage to where our ride was waiting an alleged hour walk away. We set off with less than an hour left of light my headlamp securely locked behind my door back in Loja. Energy was wearing thin and no amount of sugar cane was going to help us now, we had to hike back down the mountain side and back across the river to the other side and about 3 miles out after that! One Moment. While that may not sound too bad, remember you've been hiking through the Andes, up-down-up-down-up-down, back and forth across a river twice already and been through a pass. We didn't have much water and we hadn't had a proper meal except for beans and peanuts that was our lunch. We made it down to the bridge and were making our way up the other side of the mountain when darkness set in. And man was it dark! All we could see was the occassional light of a house on various locations across the valley from us where there were small homes with lights. Then flash.....what was that....flash.....am I seeing things?....flash....flash...just keep walking ignore it your dehydrated focus on walking....flash. Finally I stop and turn to Veronica the UTPL professor that is there and ask her what the lights are and if they're real or just my mind playing tricks on me. Nope those little green flashes were some kind of Ecuadorian firefly except a lot bigger haha. I'm not crazy, but probably dehydrated haha! So we keep walking more and more green flashed appearing randomly some flying nearby others in the jungle off in the distance a little but still visible. So knowing I wasn't crazy we finally came onto the main trail/road it was wet and slippery, so we pushed on. Trying to pass the time I worked on my spanish with our guide, the other student, and Veronica. Learning new words and teaching them such words as "slippery" it made the time go by a little easier. We later found out that sometime while me trying to learn more spanish we were hiking on a cliff and that many animals had fallen off of and a couple people. Anyways it was a great experience and am quite sore from it! I hope that this doesn't happen and will hopefully remember to pack the headlight I got from my parents! Missing my friends, family, and girlfriend and can't wait to see you all when I get back!
Well we made it safely to Tutupali after passing one of the many bright orange dump trucks that run this road (either for road construction or mining, haven't quite been able to figure it out) and it was in the uhh "ditch." It was quite the sight as we came whipping around one of the corners there's this massive machine sitting just off the road in the jungle. We picked up the passenger in the vehicle who was drunk and I had actually seen earlier when we were waiting in town for our ride driving by drinking a Club Cerveza. So when we picked him up it wasn't surprising he was drunk and very upset. I don't think the driver had been drinking because they have very strict DUI laws here but just not open container laws, or so I am told. It was quite the scene and we continued on our way to Tutupali to conduct our surveys the whole rest of the ride out I was nervous holding onto the truck frame extra tight half expecting to see another orange dump truck come hauling around one of the corners and smashing into us or sending us off the side of the road. But it never came, we made it safely. The drunk man continued on with the driver just up the road to the next little village where I'm assuming his boss was. Anyways we had dinner there of Yuca, Queso, and rice with some strange yellow tea. It was actually pretty okay, afterwards we went out into the plaza and watched the soccer games that had started on the little basketball court. We started approaching people around watching the games who were chatting amongst each other and got 9 surveys tonight! Off to bed at about 2330 (1130) the plaza still had lots of activity but we were tired.
6/9/2011
This morning we woke up at about 8 had breakfast and I packed my backpack to head into a couple of the neighborhoods to conduct surveys. So their definition of a "neighborhood" are like these little villages that are only accessible by walking these rudiculous mountain trails with the exception of a few that are along the road. Our destinations though are an alleged 2 hour hike to the first place another 2 hour hike to the second and an hour hike after that we should be out of the jungle and our ride picking us up. We started hiking at 9:30 and reached the first location at 12:00 where we had lunch and got 15 surveys and man it was gruesome the straight-uped-ness of the trail was amazing. It beat the crap out of us and not to mention it was raining, it was quite invigorating and got to see some Toucans!! We were back on the road by 1400 (2:00pm) walking to the next place. We enjoyed the semi-easy trail we had dropped to this small valley floor crossed a river and hiked up the other mountain side, contouring across going fairly easy. (1500) Then we came across some people on the trail and they told us we needed to drop back down and get to the other side of the valley on the other mountain side and pointed to a faint white square that was the school where we had more people waiting for us to survey them. Well we hiked back down, crossed the river again on another bridge and started back up the other side, man are these mountains steep, the humidity, and the altitude. It was all a lot! After many breaks, running out of clean water, and drinking "pure" spring water we kept hiking to our destinate and made it around 1730(5:30pm)! We were met with open arms and some stern talking-to's. Apparently everyone had been waiting at the school house for us at 1100 that morning ready to feed us lunch and do the surveys, we showed up a few hours late and with hungry stomachs but the food had already been eaten. There weren't many people left many had gone home thinking we weren't coming so we got 8 surveys out of the village and began our voyage to where our ride was waiting an alleged hour walk away. We set off with less than an hour left of light my headlamp securely locked behind my door back in Loja. Energy was wearing thin and no amount of sugar cane was going to help us now, we had to hike back down the mountain side and back across the river to the other side and about 3 miles out after that! One Moment. While that may not sound too bad, remember you've been hiking through the Andes, up-down-up-down-up-down, back and forth across a river twice already and been through a pass. We didn't have much water and we hadn't had a proper meal except for beans and peanuts that was our lunch. We made it down to the bridge and were making our way up the other side of the mountain when darkness set in. And man was it dark! All we could see was the occassional light of a house on various locations across the valley from us where there were small homes with lights. Then flash.....what was that....flash.....am I seeing things?....flash....flash...just keep walking ignore it your dehydrated focus on walking....flash. Finally I stop and turn to Veronica the UTPL professor that is there and ask her what the lights are and if they're real or just my mind playing tricks on me. Nope those little green flashes were some kind of Ecuadorian firefly except a lot bigger haha. I'm not crazy, but probably dehydrated haha! So we keep walking more and more green flashed appearing randomly some flying nearby others in the jungle off in the distance a little but still visible. So knowing I wasn't crazy we finally came onto the main trail/road it was wet and slippery, so we pushed on. Trying to pass the time I worked on my spanish with our guide, the other student, and Veronica. Learning new words and teaching them such words as "slippery" it made the time go by a little easier. We later found out that sometime while me trying to learn more spanish we were hiking on a cliff and that many animals had fallen off of and a couple people. Anyways it was a great experience and am quite sore from it! I hope that this doesn't happen and will hopefully remember to pack the headlight I got from my parents! Missing my friends, family, and girlfriend and can't wait to see you all when I get back!
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